geekosystem

The Pirate Bay has, let's say, pretty liberal views on copyright laws, though they kind of have to, considering they're entire raison d'être is letting people share files illegally. hat means they're not the kind of people who would usually raise a stink over anyone copying something from them, but that hasn't stopped them from filing a suit against an anti-piracy organization they say copied files on which their site is built. Don't worry. They acknowledge the irony of the situation.

The Republican Study Committee released, and quickly retracted, a rather fantastic copyright reform memo last month. Though the political group apparently wants to forget the report ever happened, advocates of copyright reform across the Internet have latched onto it as a symbol of sanity in an otherwise crazy world. The staffer behind the memo, Derek Khanna, received a lot of praise from outsiders, but those within the Republican party apparently didn't think so highly of him. When Congress comes back in January, he'll be out of a job.

Is it time to declare that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a mess yet? Because several major studios have requested that Google take down legitimate websites featuring their own content, including their Facebook pages, and in one case a direct link to a show's page on its own network website. The requests were most likely filed automatically by bots scouring the Internet for copyright violations, but still, when you ask Google to take down your own movie from iTunes and Amazon because of copyright violations that don't exist, you look like a jerk. Or at least an idiot. Yeah, probably an idiot.

It's fairly well-known that TorrentFreak is an excellent source for anything related to BitTorrent, copyright, and general piracy news. Due to this fact, it's understandable that any legal firm dealing with these issues would be familiar with it. Those that follow the site should know that TorrentFreak looks down on copyright trolls that send out mass notices. Prenda Law apparently didn't get the memo, as they've included a direct link to a TorrentFreak article in their latest legal threats. Well, TorrentFreak's responded by redirecting the link to a page on how to defend against such claims.

If you're the Republican party, how do you win the youth vote? A good idea would be to take a stance in support of something that the youth appear to have an interest in. Perhaps this was in the mind of House Republicans when the Republican Study Committee released a policy brief titled "Three Myths about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it" on Friday. Unfortunately, it appears that not everyone agrees. Whether it's because of lobbyists or dissenting viewpoints, the group retracted their brief on the grounds that it had been disseminated "without adequate review within the RSC" less than 24 hours after it first went out.

If multiple steps involved in a legal case were ruled as illegal for various reasons, any sane person would be hard-pressed to call that a success. That is, unless that person was only concerned with the ends and not the means. Attorney General Eric Holder is apparently one of those people that aren't too concerned, especially when it comes to the MegaUpload case. In a speech about grants being provided to fight intellectual property crime, Holder referenced MegaUpload as a shining example of what those funds could do.

Google's taken some flak in the past over the way YouTube handles copyright allegations. In order to stymie the flood of complaints from copyright holders, they implemented the flawed Content ID system that allows said copyright holders to essentially hold uploaded videos hostage. They can either take them down or place ads to monetize the content. The whole process is automated, and false positives run rampant. Thankfully, YouTube has announced that they're altering their algorithms and will even start reviewing some claims manually.

One would think that the study of art might require some, well, art to study. The people calling the shots at OCAD University would disagree, however. The textbook this year for one of the university's art courses, titled "Global Visual and Material Culture: Prehistory to 1800," costs a whopping $180 and -- in all seriousness -- includes no art whatsoever. The kicker? It's required for every student taking the class.

When copyright czar Victoria Espinel asked for input from the public about what to do about the future of copyright law and the increasing ease of piracy, she couldn't be surprised when the MPAA and RIAA weighed in with their opinions on the matter. Those opinions -- expressed in the form of a 28 page wishlist released last Friday -- are unsurprising. Oh, except for the parts that are completely out of touch with reality -- like the idea that uploading a video you don't have the rights to should be a felony, because it is just like murder. Right? Right. That notion was a non-starter when it was a part of SOPA, but that doesn't mean it's off the organizations' laundry list of turn-ons.

The London 2012 Olympics have officially begun! Whenever the Olympics come around, people tend to get excited. They also tend to upload unauthorized footage to websites like YouTube. That's when the International Olympic Committee puts their collective foot down. It's clearly wrong to share an event designed to celebrate multiculturalism and encourage global cooperation -- outside the properly paying channels, of course.

Not that long ago, Oracle basically lost an infringement case against Google concerning various Java APIs and the way they were utilized in the Android operating system. The judge decided that the structure, sequence, and order of those APIs wasn't covered by existing copyright law and threw out the majority of the claims against Google. And now, after everything fell through for Oracle, Google is demanding reimbursement to the tune of $4,000,000 in legal costs.

While most of its citizens were busy watching the arrest of a cult terrorist who tried to gas the Tokyo subway, Japan's House of Representatives quietly passed a much stricter revision of its copyright law. And nobody noticed except the inhabitants of 2 chan.

Copyright infringement is a pretty murky environment, especially on the internet. Piracy is constantly brought up in nearly every conversation had about media being broadcast across the tubes and for good reason. But zealous over-enforcement and bogus takedowns seem to be the norm now. Such is the case with Brian Kamerer's campaign video he made for a friend that Jay Leno aired on his show in 2009. And now, NBC claims they own the video.

Remember that old FBI warning before movies that you probably don't notice anymore because there's a decent chance you exclusively use streaming services to watch your movies and television shows now? Remember how it was always annoying that, whenever you popped in a DVD, you couldn't skip that warning, as your DVD player would inform you that the operation could not be completed? Well, it's about to get even more annoying for DVD and Blu-ray owners. That single, unskippable FBI warning is multiplying, and now DVDs and Blu-rays from six major studios will carry two unskippable, ten second warnings.

When Hard Drive Productions went to court attempting to force ISPs to hand over identities of the people they accused of BitTorrenting their adult film Amateur Allure – Natalia they likely expected it would be a breeze. With the names in hand, Hard Drive would be free to pressure the individuals they claimed downloaded the film into a cash settlement as many media creators turned copyright trolls are wont to do. However, they met a major obstacle in the form of California Judge Howard R. Lloyd.